Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Ethical Behaviors in a Workplace

Sali Yakoub

It is very important
to have great ethical behaviors in a workplace. Having good ethics will make
the job a lot easier as well as help stock prices of public companies increase
dramatically. On other hand, public companies who suffer ethics problems can
see their stock prices decline for up to six months after the public learns of
unethical behavior (Kinsman, 2006). it is very important to take stepswhen it come to hiring candidate for the HR
position, the first thing to do is making sure this candidate can handle
personal issues, does not lie in the resume or application. Make sure the
candidate has good background in teamwork as well as technical skills. It is
always a good idea to have the candidate be the talkative person throughout the
interview process. A good interview should last up to 45 minutes interview. If
the candidate is seen to be a good hire start by asking questions about some
marketing and sales skills, all of these aspects test the candidate for good
ethical behaviors.

It is usually not a
crime that would stop HR departments from hiring candidates, but the fact that
the candidate lied on their application raises many red flags. We are then in a
position of deciding whether we would hire this qualified person knowing that
they might wind up lying to us down the road. It is a powerful ethical issue
that HR faces (Kinsman, 2006). Dress code should not be so strict that the
employer may lose potential candidates that are suitable for the position.
According to Tamara Devitt, "a policy that is too prohibitive will keep
out employees that employers might otherwise want to hire." For example,
the number of tattoos and piercings should not be a topic that is talked about
in an interview process. Another issue that HR departments encounter is religious
discrimination. As reported by David Barron, "Religious accommodation and
discrimination issues may come into play. If a tattoo or piercing reflects a
genuine religious belief, the employer must accommodate that belief unless
doing so would impose an undue hardship on the business."

HR department deal
with ethical question that are carried out by real-life problems. People look
up to HR and trust the department to help them with personal issues. Many
companies these days have setup third-party reporting options, allowing people
to anonymously report ethical lapses or inappropriate conduct (Kinsman, 2006).
When showing good ethical behavior during work, workers will be encouraged and
show the same ethical behaviors. It is always helpful when helping a client
with a problem to consider everyday events as well as everyday challenges to
help respond to the question through this process the response will be more
effective. The following is an example of a typical situation that HR managers
are dealing with: "Rumor has it that one of my employees has become very
difficult to work with. Technically, her skills are superb but I know she can
be a little "rough around the edges." I hate to say anything to her
because I do not want to lose her or upset her." (Maxwell, 2004) The way
to approach this type of situation is by figuring out the solution on your own
without the help of a third party. Once the solution to the situation has been
acquired, it should be acted upon as efficiently to avoid losing other staff
that have relationship with the employee as well as avoiding causing harm to
the company. Most employees will always act upon inappropriate behaviors but it
is the manager's job to have discussions with the employees by using guidelines
for providing feedback.

There are five guidelines to use when providing feedbacks.
These guidelines are "one start with an 'I' statement, two identify the
specific behavior and avoid focusing on the person, three describe the impact
to you, others, or the organization, four suggest alternative behaviors or
course of action and five follow-up with the employee quickly after the
conversation to close the loop" (Maxwell, 2004). Have good work ethics
could help improve work productivity. In order to progress the organization future,
the organization must clean up its act by engaging and creating ethical
behavior. For HR professionals with mandates to create productive, respectful
workplaces, the negative impact on morale caused by leaders taking greed and
corruption to new heights undermines the very goal of improving worker
productivity (Hobel, 2004).Stephen R. Covey believes courage, honesty,
fairness, and empathy as being traits necessary for ethical behavior (Danley,
2005).